Expert: Sandy rape, beating suspect was likely experienced and 'evolving'

SANDY — Sandy police were working Thursday to identify any additional possible victims of a man accused of detaining, raping and beating a woman in his home, as a retired FBI agent cautioned that the man appeared to have “grown and evolved” in his behaviors.

Sgt. Dean Carriger said no additional victims had come forward since news reports circulated about 60-year-old Vratislav Roger Bilek’s charges Wednesday night, including the woman who originally spoke to police after an Aug. 8 incident in the neighborhood.

Joe and Karen Maestas said the woman ran into their garage naked and told them she was held captive by Bilek in a closet and that he had threatened to kill her.

“He told her that he’d killed many women and he would kill her if she tried to get away,” Karen Maestas said.

Carriger said police only spoke initially to the woman before she went to the hospital — when she appeared to be intoxicated or high — and detectives have not been able to locate her since she left the hospital for a follow-up interview.

Retired FBI agent Juan Becerra, now a consultant for KORR Defense Group and an instructor of criminal profiling at Utah Valley University, said the reported statement that Bilek claimed to have “killed many women” is something detectives should take seriously in these types of cases.

“The behavior begins to expand, and they become better at masking their crimes and selecting their victims and then moving forward, and that escalates — it can escalate — more and more frequently from a rape possibly to a homicide,” Becerra said.

Bilek is charged with multiple felonies — including aggravated kidnapping, rape and object rape — in connection with a Sept. 1 case, in which court documents said Bilek detained a woman in his home, sexually assaulted her multiple times, threatened to kill her, strangled her, and at one point held her face in a bathtub of water in an attempt to drown her.

According to booking documents, the woman said Bilek’s house had “cameras recording many of the bedrooms and VHS tapes all over.” The woman claimed Bilek also had ID's or copies of women’s ID's in his room with their addresses.

Carriger said Thursday detectives had determined the ID's had a legitimate purpose inside the home and had no bearing on the investigation. He also said detectives found no VHS tapes when they searched the house, but did find cameras in the various rooms.

Charging documents said Bilek identified himself as “Ronnie” to the woman in the Sept. 1 case when they met at a Salt Lake motel. According to the documents, Bilek offered the woman a room in his house for $300, and the two ultimately wound up at Bilek’s house, where they did meth together.

Becerra said Bilek’s actions according to the jail and charging documents exhibited a high level of planning, as did his apparent targeting of women who were less likely to contact police because of their lifestyle.

“This is an individual who has grown and evolved,” Becerra explained, “who has thought about this, acted upon it in the past and maybe has learned from mistakes he has made in the past in other locations.”

Becerra said Bilek appears experienced enough it would merit a look into his past, including his years as a trucker.

Neighbors said Bilek stopped trucking about two years ago after an accident.

“I would be looking at truck stops, I would be looking at disappearances in and around truck stops, in and around rest areas,” Becerra said.

Carriger said while detectives believe there may be additional victims, there was no evidence yet to suggest there were any out-of-state victims.

Becerra suggested the setup of Bilek’s house — including the cameras — also indicated he was not a novice.

“Obviously he has worked very, very hard to create an environment where he can freely commit these crimes without being noticed,” Becerra said.

Contributing: Mike Anderson

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